White Limbo: The Classic Story Of The First Australian Climb Of Everest
Page 23
The Age bought the newspaper rights from the Expedition and through its journalist, Simon Balderstone, provided an important means of communication from Base Camp to Beijing and Australia.
Asia-Australia Express shipped our equipment from Hong Kong to Beijing, then back to Sydney after the climb. Our thanks to Stuart Young in Sydney and Robert Cutler in Hong Kong for their enthusiasm and support.
Benalla Fund Raising Committee. In the early stages of planning the Expedition, fund raising in Tim’s home district by Mrs Pat Gardiner, Mrs Helen Dennett and the committee they organised enabled us to print brochures and letterheads, and so approach potential sponsors in a professional manner.
B.R. Converters, through director Brian Ingham-Rhodes, made a sizeable donation to the Expedition at a time when our administrative costs exceeded our bank balance.
Canon kindly lent the Expedition two F1 bodies and a variety of accessories. Everything worked well in the tough conditions of Tibet. The Super 8 cameras which we used from Base Camp to the summit were also made by Canon, strength and versatility being their big advantages.
Cathay Pacific flew the Expedition to and from Hong Kong in great comfort, and arranged for the airlifting of our not inconsiderable amounts of luggage. Its familiarity with the South-East Asian arena made Cathay the obvious choice. Our thanks to Jim MacDougall and Alister Blount.
Citizen provided watches which could withstand the extreme environment of Everest. Its alarms (though we cursed them) woke us from our exhausted slumber at all camps when we needed to rise early to make the most of the day.
Clayton Utz provided we rather naive mountaineers with legal advice. Our thanks to James Gibb.
Peat, Marwick, Mitchell and Company handled the Expedition accounts and provided office space and secretarial services. Our thanks to the ever-patient Ezikiel Elias who kept our erratic methods of accounting in some sort of order, and to Larry Smith and John Cherry.
Radio 3AW bought the radio broadcasting rights from the Expedition.
Sanitarium Health Foods provided the Expedition with all its needs in dried fruit, nuts and other specialist health foods.
Storage Technology made the Expedition a donation of money and a loan of some “thin film read/write heads for high technology disk drives”. We spent the money before we reached Base Camp, but Tim took the minute computer components to the summit and back.
The Hong Kong Shanghai Bank, the first company to support the Expedition financially, offered indispensable advice about the business of sponsorship and gave valuable introductions to other firms. Our special thanks to John Allen, Gordon Snowdon and Richard Joynt.
Wilderness Expeditions, of which Tim Macartney-Snape is a director, donated much of Tim’s office time to the Expedition, and provided secretarial services and the use of audio-visual equipment for promotions.
Wild Magazine, a valuable forum for environmental issues and outdoor activities, featured stories about the Annapurna II climb and Mt Everest.
As the preparations for our climb progressed our sponsors were kept informed about the Expedition planning by our managers, Graham Lovett and Karen Scott of Proserve, who also helped with the negotiation of terms with several of our sponsors (including Channel Nine). Others who provided their support to the Expedition were Buttercup, Bollé, Damart, John Leckenby of Hong Kong Oxygen, Lowe Alpine Systems, Macpac, Scotpac, Dick Smith, Sheldon and Hammond, Ross McCleary of CIG, Jim Morrison of Companion, David Goodearl of Goodearl and Bailey and Belview Hosiery.
There is a great deal more to producing a book than sitting down with a pen, a few exercise books, a pile of photos and the address of an interested publisher. I have learnt that discipline and persistence are needed to write a book as well as to climb mountains. It is unlikely that the first edition of this book would have reached the shelves if not for the encouragement of Kevin Weldon, Iain Finlay and Trish Sheppard, and my parents. This encouragement inspired me to start work on the book even before we left for China.
“White Limbo” lyrics by Simon Binks are reproduced by permission of Wheatley Music.
And of course, without Tim, Andy, Greg, Geof, Tenzing and Narayan there would have been no Expedition, and hence no book. My thanks to them for their unbending support while I wrote, and for some of the best experiences of my life.
I am also grateful to the staff of Simon & Schuster Australia for making the second edition a reality, and in particular Kirsty Melville for embracing the concept. I learnt that producing a paperback version involved much more than merely retypesetting the text. My thanks to Susan Morris-Yates for her tireless coordination of those efforts within a very tight schedule, to Michael Dawe for his search for perfection with the maps, to Kathie Baxter Smith for her design work, and to Tim Macartney-Snape, Michael Dillon and Howard Whelan for the use of their photographs in the second edition.
ABSEIL Method of descent by sliding down a rope. The amount of friction between the climber and the rope determines the speed of the descent. If the rope is doubled it can be retrieved after the abseil by pulling one of the ends. Longer abseils can be made if two ropes are tied together.
ANCHOR A climber attaches himself or the rope to the mountain by an anchor. It may be a natural feature, such as a spike of rock round which the rope is tied, or a man-made device such as a PITON.
ANOXIA The state of being deprived of oxygen.
ARETE A sharp narrow ridge.
BELAY see CLIMBING SEQUENCE.
BERGSCHRUND (abbr. ’schrund) The crevasse which separates the NEVÉ from the face of the mountain.
BIVOUAC (abbr. Bivvy) A night spent on a mountain without a proper camp, i.e. no tents or Dylan tapes.
BOLLARD Spike or lump or rock which can be used as an anchor.
BOOKING OF PEAK Permission to climb Himalayan peaks must be obtained from the government of the relevant country. An application is submitted by the expedition and a booking fee is paid. The mountain is then reserved for that particular expedition. Some mountains, such as Everest, are booked many years in advance.
CEREBRAL OEDEMA Retention of fluid in the brain, an often fatal malfunction of the metabolism due to the lack of oxygen and low air pressure at high altitude. Can generally be avoided by careful, gradual acclimatisation.
CIRQUE An amphitheatre formed by mountains.
CLIMBING SEQUENCE At the bottom of a cliff or particular section of mountain the two climbers each tie on to an end of the climbing rope. One man also ties himself to an ANCHOR. He is called the BELAYER. The other person, called the LEADER, begins to climb the rock face while the belayer pays out the rope and makes sure it does not snag. Once over five metres above the ground, the leader faces serious injury if he falls. In order to safeguard himself he places protection; he finds or arranges an anchor and clips the rope to it with a KARABINER. The rope can run freely through the karabiner, as if through a pulley. The anchor may be connected to the karabiner with a SLING. The anchor/sling/karabiner set-up is called a RUNNER. If the leader slips when he is six metres above the ground and 1.5 metres above the runner, the rope held by the belayer will arrest his fall after only three metres. The leader climbs up the cliff placing runners at regular intervals, the actual interval depending on the difficulty of the climbing and the availability of anchors. When all the rope between the leader and his belayer has been paid out the leader looks for a suitable ledge to use as a BELAY STANCE. There he ties the rope to one or more anchors. Then it is his turn to belay. As his partner climbs he takes in the rope. The second man unclips the rope from the runners as he climbs. If the second man slips he is safeguarded by the rope from above. Because the leader (now the belayer) is tied to anchors he is not pulled off the cliff by such a fall. Once the pair are together on the belay stance the whole sequence can begin again. A rope length climbed by this method is called a PITCH. A different system is sometimes used when climbing snow. Often the snow is soft enough for an instant belay to be arranged by plunging the ice-axe shaft into the snow. On such
terrain the two climbers are tied together but do not place runners or belays. When a climber slips his partner rams his axe into the snow, and this anchors both climbers to the mountain.
COL A high pass.
CORNICE An overhanging lip of ice which is formed by wind on the crest of a ridge.
COULOIR A major mountain gully, usually with a base of snow or ice, and often providing the easiest route through steep rock.
CRAMPONS Lightweight alloy frames with twelve spikes that are strapped to mountaineering boots to enable the boots to grip on ice. Two points protruding horizontally from the front of the boot make climbing steep ice possible.
CWM A valley on the flank of a mountain.
DESCENDEUR A device for steep abseiling. The descendeur regulates the speed of the slide by increasing the friction between the climber and the rope.
DOUBLE BOOTS For extremely cold conditions a light felt or synthetic boot is worn inside a large outer boot.
FIXED ROPE Fixing rope on a mountain can be compared to building a railway line. It permits quick and safe ascents and descents between camps on the mountain. The different sections of the route need only be climbed once—after that they are surmounted by ascending the fixed rope. Rope fixing is a laborious and expensive procedure so the method is usually restricted to big mountains, mainly those of the Himalaya.
FOAM SLEEPING MATS Used as insulation when camping on snow. They are warmer and lighter than airbeds.
FRIABLE (of rock) Easily crumbled.
HARNESS In the event of a fall a waist harness (to which the climbing rope is tied) is much safer and more comfortable than a rope around the waist.
HYPOTHERMIA Subnormal body temperature. When exposed to extreme cold, the human body cannot maintain a constant core temperature. The hypothermia which occurs is fatal unless the person is rapidly rewarmed.
ICE-AXE The essential mountaineering tool, used for climbing and belaying, and as a brake when a climber slips.
ICE-HAMMER Instead of a claw to draw out nails, an ice-hammer has a pick for climbing ice. The hammer head is used for placing PITONS or SNOW-STAKES.
ICE-SCREW A short metal shaft screwed or hammered into hard ice and used as an anchor.
JUMAR A metal clamp used for climbing fixed ropes. It can be slid up the rope, but as soon as weight is applied it locks in position.
KARABINER A strong oval snap-link used to clip the climber or the rope to an anchor or a runner.
LAMA A Tibetan Buddhist monk.
LEADER see CLIMBING SEQUENCE.
LIAISON OFFICER Himalayan expeditions are required by the local government to take a liaison officer with them. His job is to ensure that the expedition does not exploit the people or climb the wrong mountain. He also helps with buying supplies and organising the porters.
MORAINE Mass of boulders, gravel, sand and clay carried on or deposited by a glacier.
NEVÉ Area of accumulated snow at the head of a glacier.
PEE BOTTLE Urine receptacle. A real convenience in cramped bivouacs when it is not always practical to walk to the nearest bush or rock.
PITCH see CLIMBING SEQUENCE.
PITON Metal spike which is hammered into a crack in the rock to provide an anchor. Each piton has an eye to which karabiners can be clipped.
PLUGGING STEPS The exhausting and monotonous task of breaking a trail through soft snow.
PROTECTION see CLIMBING SEQUENCE.
ROPE Climbing rope is used most frequently in lengths of fifty metres. Modern rope is designed to stretch to absorb the force generated by a falling climber.
RUNNER see CLIMBING SEQUENCE.
SCREE Steep mass of broken rock on the side of a mountain.
SIRDAR A Nepalese word meaning “boss”, applied to the foreman, guide and employer of a group of porters.
SLING A loop of strong nylon webbing which can be draped around a bollard to provide a runner.
SNOW-STAKE A piece of angular aluminium about sixty centimetres in length which is hammered into hard snow to provide an anchor.
acupuncture
Age, the
Allen, John
Alpine Club
alpine-style expeditions see under mountaineering, lightweight expeditions
Ama Dablam
American ascent of Everest (1963)
Andes, Peruvian
Annapurna Range
Annapurna I
Annapurna II
Australian ascent
provisioning
Annapurna III
Annapurna IV
Machapuchare
wetness of
anoxia
see also oxygen deprivation
Anyemaqen, Mt
Asia-Australia Express,
Australia-China Council
Australian ascent of Everest (1984)
at Base Camp
descent
on the mountain
on the summit
operations base in Sydney
planning
preparation
team members
Austrian ascent of Everest (1978)
avalanches
suitable conditions for
Balderstone, Simon
Bartram, Geof
decision not to risk death
expedition to Mt Pumori
high-altitude experience
symptoms of cerebral oedema
Beijing
Belview Hosiery
Benalla Fund Raising Committee
Beyond Everest (film)
Bioglan Pty Ltd
bird life
Boardman, Peter
Bollé
Bonington, Chris
Bourdillion, Tom
B. R. Converters
Britain
ascent of South-West Face of Everest
climbs in European Alps
first ascent of Everest (1953)
Great Depression (1924)
interest in Everest
British Himalayan Committee
Burston Marsteller
Buttercup
Canon
Cathay Pacific
Centre for Physical Culture and Sports, Lhasa
cerebral oedema
Changabang
Changtse (Everest’s North Peak)
Channel Nine Television (Sydney)
“Wide World of Sports”
China
Chengdu
Cultural Revolution
Great Wall
Chinese ascent of Everest (1960)
Chinese Mountaineering Association
cold weather gear for yak owners
expedition via Tibet approved
liaison officer for Australian expedition
organisation for expenditure
permission to climb Everest
Chinese support crew
Chisholm, Sam
Cho Oyu
CIG
cinematography
Citizen
Clayton Utz
climbing equipment
clothing
cold, effects of
cough and headcold
frostbite
on hands and feet
warming each other
wet from avalanche
Companion
Damart
Devistan, Mt
diet
Dillon, Michael
donating companies
Duff, Jim
Dunagiri
Duracell
equipment, climbing
Evans, Charles
Everest, from Sea to Summit (Dillon) (film)
Everest, from Sea to Summit (Macartney-Snape) (book)
Everest, Mt
challenge of
early interest in
expeditions
1921 British reconnaissance
1922 first full-scale attempt (British)
1924 British
1933 British
1935 British reconnaissance
1936 British summi
t attempt
1938 lightweight expedition
1951 British reconnaissance
1952 Swiss attempt
1953 first ascent by British team
1954 Swiss ascent
1960 Chinese ascent
1963 American ascent
1972 Italian ascent
1973 Japanese ascent
1975 British ascent of South-West Face
1978 Austrian ascent
1979 Yugoslav ascent
1980 Polish ascent
1980 Japanese ascent
1984 Australian ascent see Australian ascent of Everest
Mother Goddess of the Earth
nomenclature
Great Couloir
Hornbein Couloir
North Col
North-East Ridge
Northern Cwm
North Face
South Col
South Pillar
South Summit
South-West Face
West Ridge
Western Cwm
White Limbo
Yellow Band
Qomolangma
rubbish left by expeditions
size of
summit
winter climbing
film crew
first-aid kit
First World War
food
From, Fred
frostbite see under cold, effects of
fund raising
garnets
Gaurishankar, Mt
Gokyo Valley (Nepal)
Goodearl and Bailey
Groom, Michael
Haebler, Peter
Hall, Lincoln (author)
adrenalin-induced alertness
anger
cold, effects of
cough and cold
descent in darkness
fund raising
Himalayan guide
hit by avalanche
jumping a crevasse
reading aloud
relationships